TIDMABZA
RNS Number : 7267Q
Abzena PLC
14 September 2017
Abzena plc
Trading Update
Cambridge, UK, 14 September 2017 - Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA,
'Abzena' or the 'Group'), a life sciences group providing services
and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of
biopharmaceutical products, announces a trading update for the
period to 14 September 2017, ahead of its AGM being held at 10am
today at the Babraham Research Campus.
Revenues for each of the Group's service lines during the
current financial year to date has been below the Board's
expectations. As a result, the Group expects revenue for the first
half of the year to not be significantly higher than the revenue
reported for the six months to 30 September 2016, with a
corresponding impact on the Group's expected loss. The Group's
slower than expected start for the period can be attributed to
lower volumes in certain areas of the business, a small number of
large projects that are taking longer to complete than expected,
and certain other projects being delayed until the second half of
the year.
With good order cover and a high engagement level for new
business, the Board expects revenue for the second half to be
substantially stronger than the first half, but it does not expect
the business to recover the entire shortfall to the Board's
expectations for the year as a whole. The Board, therefore, expects
revenue for the full year to be materially lower than previously
expected, with consequential impact on reported loss.
Notwithstanding this slow start to the year, the Board remains
optimistic that the Group's long term prospects remains strong.
As described previously, due to the long-term nature of certain
research and biomanufacturing service agreements entered into by
the Group, revenue recognised under these contracts is based on
management estimates of the stage of their completion. The
performance of the services under these agreements is subject to
scientific uncertainty as well as being dependent on the
performance of inter-related activities by the customer and/or
third parties. The uncertainties relating to these estimates and
the performance of the contracts can lead to material uncertainty
in the revenue to be recognised for any service project prior to
completion.
The Board remains committed to the growth strategy outlined in
the Group's announcement of 5 April 2017 and reports that progress
has been made in adding physical and scientific capacity in order
to enable to Group to grow and react to its clients' demands. As at
31 August, the Group held a robust cash balance of GBP18.8 million
reflecting slightly slower-than-expected investment in its
manufacturing capacity.
The investment programme at the Group's Bristol (USA) facility
establishing the GMP bioconjugation and scale-up chemistry capacity
is progressing and is expected to be operational in the first
quarter of 2018 to fulfil anticipated customer demand.
The first stirred tank bioreactors, with capacity up to 500 L,
are on track to be installed on schedule in the fourth calendar
quarter 2017 at the Group's San Diego (USA) biomanufacturing
facility.
Investment in the San Diego manufacturing facility has been
delayed while the Board evaluates options for consolidation of its
biologic process development and manufacturing operations to a new
state of the art facility in the San Diego area. This would entail
consolidation of all the current operations from the existing
Torrey Pines and Rehco Road facilities with an aim to become
operational in the first half of 2019.
Following completion of Bioverativ's acquisition of True North
Therapeutics, Bioverativ has disclosed its plans for the two
parallel global Phase III pivotal studies of 'Abzena Inside'
product BIVV009 (formerly TNT009) in 60 cold agglutinin disease
patients. These studies are expected to initiate before the end of
the year. A further Phase I study in patients with chronic immune
thrombocytopenia has been initiated.
John Burt, CEO of Abzena, said:
"The slow start to this financial year arises from a combination
of factors that Abzena's management has recognised and is
addressing. The Board anticipates improved performance in the
second half as the conversion of new business contracts accelerates
and is confident in longer-term growth prospects. The business
remains committed to its path towards scale and sustainability
across its biology, chemistry and manufacturing service lines."
This announcement is released by Abzena plc and contains inside
information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse
Regulation (EU) 596/2014 ("MAR"), encompassing information relating
to the Group's trading performance described herein, and is
disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under
Article 17 of MAR.
For the purposes of MAR and Article 2 of Commission Implementing
Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is being made on
behalf of the Company by John Burt, Chief Executive Officer.
-Ends-
Enquiries:
Abzena plc
John Burt, Chief Executive
Officer Julian Smith, Chief
Financial Officer +44 1223 903498
Numis (Abzena's Nominated Adviser
and Broker)
Clare Terlouw / James Black +44 20 7260
/ Paul Gillam 1000
N+1 Singer (Abzena's Joint
Broker) +44 20 7496
Aubrey Powell / Liz Yong 3000
Instinctif Partners (Abzena's +44 20 7457
PR advisors) 2020
Melanie Toyne Sewell / Alex abzena@instinctif.com
Shaw / Deborah Bell
Notes to Editors
About Abzena
Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and
complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of
biopharmaceutical products.
The term 'ABZENA Inside' is used by Abzena to describe products
that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are
being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human
Antibodies(TM) and ThioBridge(TM) Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs).
Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone
payments and/or royalties on 'ABZENA Inside' products.
Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its
principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and
Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA):
-- Immunology research studies, including immunogenicity
assessment of candidate biopharmaceutical products;
-- Protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins;
-- Cell line development for the manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies;
-- Contract process development and GMP manufacture of
biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant
proteins for preclinical and clinical studies;
-- Contract synthetic chemistry and bioconjugation research
services, focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs);
-- Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel payloads for ADC development; and
-- GMP manufacturer of ADC linkers, payloads & combined linker-payloads.
For more information, please see www.abzena.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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